Nawal el Saadawi is an Egyptian écrivaine born in 1931 close to the Cairo.

Doctor psychiatrist and Féministe she is imprisoned in 1981 to be itself opposite with the law of the sole party under Anouar el-Sadate. Its book Mémoires of the prison of the women reports this episode. Released under Mubarak it founds in 1982 the Arab Association for the solidarity of the women which is prohibited in 1991.

It published in January 2007 an Arabic play entitled God resigns with the meeting at the top . Judged blasphématoire by the Islamic university of Cairo, this book was withdrawn from the sale before even the opening of the lawsuit which is brought to him.

Biography

Nawal El Saadawi is born with Kafr Tahla, in the delta of low Egypt. His/her father is civil servant at the minister of education; his/her mother is resulting from a middle-class family. Contrary to the practices, they send to the school their nine children, and not only the boys. Nawal El Saadawi is good pupil and, in 1949, enters in medical college.

Graduate of the University of Cairo in 1955, it studies then with the Columbia University (New York) where it obtains its control in public health, in 1966.

It makes a first marriage with Ahmed Helmi, medical student and militant for the freedom, which it divorces. Its second husband is a rich person traditionalist, with whom Nawal El Saadawi breaks when he is opposed to the fact that she writes - activity that she exerts since childhood. In 1964, it marries Sherif Hetata, doctor and novelist who translates into English several of his books. His/her daughter and her son are also writers.

Once graduate, she works as doctor at the university, and during two years at the Health center rural with Tahla. Of 1958 with 1972, it is managing director of education to the public health, the ministry for health. It is at the same time editor responsible for the magazine Health and auxiliary general secretary of the Egyptian Association of medicine . In 1972, it is revoked of its station to the ministry to have published the women and the sex , which treats sexuality, of religion and traumatism of the Excision - as many subjects taboos in the country. His/her mother, Moslem traditionalist, insisted that his/her daughter is circoncise at the six years age. Health is prohibited and the books of Nawal El Saadawi are censured. “All, in this country, is in the hands of the State and under its direct or indirect control”, writes she later in her Mémoires of a prison of women , “thanks to recognized or tacit laws, by the tradition or a fear of the authority for a long time established and deeply enracinée. ”

She then starts to publish Essai S, such as Al mar' has wal will sira' Al-nafsi (1976), who deals of the woman and the psychological conflict, or the hidden side of Eve (1977), published with Beirut. Mémoires of a prison of women was published in London, by the Women's magazines. After its novel the fall of Iman , in 1987, published in Cairo, it started to receive threats on behalf of fundamentalist groups. In 1993, it is judged for Hérésie and is condemned to death.

Of 1973 with 1978, it exerts its trade of writer to the Institute of higher learning of literature and science . It is also researcher at the medical college of the university Ain Shams, in Cairo, and works for the the United Nations as a director of the African Center of research and formation for the women in Ethiopia (1978 - 1980). It is also adviser for the Economic commission of the United Nations for Western Africa , with the Lebanon. In 1981, it is opposed to the law of the sole party enacted by Anouar el-Sadate. It is arrested and imprisoned during two months in the prison for women of Qanatir, for infringement with the Loi of protection of the values against dishonor . The prison is already familiar for him, since it undertook to it studies in the Années 1970 near held. After the death of president Sadate, it is released. Before being brought back to it, it is presented to the new president, Hosni Mubarak. In 1982, it founds the Arab Association for the solidarity of the women , which is prohibited in 1991. When its name appears on a fundamentalist list of condemned to death, it flies away with her husband for the the United States, where it teaches with the Duke University and the Washington Sate University with Seattle. In 1996, it returns to Egypt.

Work

Nawal el Saadawi received many distinctions, among which the Prix of the Superior council of Literature (1974), the Literary prize of the friendship free-Arabic (1982), or the Literary prize of Gubran (1988). The first news of Nawal was published in newspapers and magazines. Its first novels appeared in the Années 1950. In 1958, it makes its beginnings of Romancière with Mémoires of a woman doctor , an autobiographical novel partially . This book is regarded as fictional work pionnière in the modern Féminisme of the Arab world, even if, at the end, the revolted protagonist accepts his fate. In the Years 1970, Nawal started to criticize the patriarchal system openly and to tackle subjects taboos, such as the female Circoncision, the Avortement, the Sexualité, the sexual abuses on the children, and the various shapes of oppression of the women. At the time of a stay with Addis Ababa (1978), it wrote the veil where the protagonist reveals his thoughts with the reader, but not with his/her lover. Sexual and social oppression is comparison with the religious doctrines in its short novel It does not have its place with the paradise (1972).

Femme with the degree zero (1975) is partially inspired by what Nawal could collect like testimony at the University Ain Shams on the mental health of the women. In the prison for women of Qanatir, it met the main character, Fridaws, a woman deceived in her childhood and whose search for freedom finishes in search of revenge and in the murder of its upholder. A psychiatrist interviews it the day before his execution. Death seems to him a victory: “I do not want anything. I do not hope for anything. I do not fear anything. It is for that I am free. Because, throughout our life, they are our desires, our hopes, our fears which control us. ” The book was translated into French under the title Ferdaous, a voice of hell by Assia Djebar and Assia Trabelsi.

Characteristics of the work of Nawal el Saadawi

The characteristics of the writing of Nawal el Saadawi are the mixture between real fiction and data, its knowledge of medical sciences, the details autobiographical, and the description of social diseases. Certain feminist readers in Occident criticized its novels which they consider repetitive in their topics and projects, without calling into question the Western standards of narration, as did it Saadawi.

Topicality

Following the brought lawsuit with Nawal Saadawi by the university Al-Azhar for Apostasy and not respect of the religions, of many voices rose to support the écrivaine of which that of Fadela Amara. A petition was launched.

It is made honorary doctor of the Universit3e libre de Bruxelles on November 28th, 2007.

External bonds

• Biography of Nawal el Saadaoui by Vincent Engel.

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